Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
In order to return the company to profitability and make shareholders smile, the management of Notore Chemical Industries has shut down its fertilizer plant.
Notore is one of the leading fertiliser and agro-allied companies in Africa, with principal activities including the supply of premium fertilisers, appropriate education on best practices for farming and proper deployment of these practices for optimum results.
The firm operates the premier fertiliser plant in Sub-Saharan Africa and produces Ammonia with the capability to produce NPK fertiliser.
Its plant is strategically located at the Onne seaport in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, positioning it for effective shipment and distribution across the Atlantic coast.
Business Post observed that this plant has not been producing optimally, especially to its nameplate capacity of 500,000MT per annum and as part of efforts to achieve this and improve its reliability to 95 per cent, the management decided to shut it down for a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM).
Notore, which trade its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), had earlier informed the investing community of this TAM.
Giving an update on the exercise, the firm said it has closed the factory for the rehabilitation and that the project should be completed on March 8, 2021.
The organisation disclosed that when completed, the cashflow of the company should improve and return the firm to profitability as the annual revenue will increase.
“The shareholders, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public are hereby notified that the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of Notore Chemical Industries Plc’s fertiliser plant has commenced and the plant has been shut down.
“The objective of the TAM is to return the plant to its 500,000MTPA nameplate capacity and improve the reliability index to 95 per cent.
“Although disruption to global businesses occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant restrictions by governments all over the world affected the timely delivery of procured spares and the arrival to site of Vendor Service Men (VSM), the TAM is still on course and barring any unforeseen circumstance, it should be completed on March 8, 2021.
“Upon completion, we expect a significant improvement in the plant’s reliability index and sustained daily production output of 1,500MT.
“Attaining this level of production will guaranty improved cashflow, increase in annual revenue as well as return the company to profitability,” Notore said in its latest update.
